HOLLAND, Mich. - No. 17 Transylvania Volleyball's 2023 season came to an end Saturday evening in a five set loss to No. 2 Hope College in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. The Pioneers finished the season with the second most wins in program history (27) and reached the NCAA DIII Sweet Sixteen for the second straight season.

Transylvania dropped the first set 25-19 and responded back with a dominant 25-21 set two win. Hope took the set three win 25-19 and the Pioneers responded again with another dominant set, winning 25-17 to force a fifth set.

Hope took a 4-0 lead right away, and then went into court-switch timeout up 8-4. After a Transy timeout, the Pioneers scored four straight points off an attack error and kills by Kayden Holcomb and Cate Scheper to tie the match and cause a Hope timeout. The Dutchmen would win the fifth set 15-10 after finishing on a 7-2 run to advance to the elite eight.

Three different Pioneers finished with double-digit kills. Kayden Holcomb finished with 18 kills came within one kill of tying her career high. Isabella Myers finished with 18 kills and Cate Scheper finished with 15.
Transylvania led the Dutchmen in kills 65-63, assists 64-60, and digs 103-96. The Pioneers brought the fight all game.

"It was a heartbreaker, but we gave it everything we had and we left it out on the court," Head Coach Amy Barmore said. "I'm super proud of this group and they know how to rally around each other. They are good teammates and good people..

Kayden Holcomb finished second on the team this season with 367 total kills, and was able to break through a tough Hope block tonight. Hope finished the game with 16 blocks.

"We gave it our all, so we can't go out upset," Holcomb said after the game. "It's super disappointing because we didn't get the result we wanted, but we also went balls to the wall, so we can't be too mad."

Isabella Myers had a career high just two nights ago versus Mount Union, and matched her previous season high of 18 kills tonight. Myers finished third on the team in kills with 333.

"We've put in a lot of hard work before we got here so we become disciplined from everything we do every single day and you bring that with you each game," Myers said after the game. "We played our hearts out and that's all you can ask for."

Barmore talked about the toughness of her team after the game.

"I would pick this team and take this team all over again. Their heart and their grit and the way they work together is pretty unbelievable. I've had lots of teams doing this for lots of years, and this is by far the closest team I've ever been apart of."

After the match, Cate Scheper and Isabella Myers were named to the NCAA All-Regional Tournament team. Many Pioneers had notable achievements this year.

Highlighting the season, Ava Beltsos was named the HCAC Tournament most Outstanding Player. Grace Ward had 1290 assists this season and became the first Pioneer with 4,000 career assists. Ward was named HCAC Player of the Year for the second year in a row. Cate Scheper was first in the HCAC in kills with 414. Kayden Holcomb led the HCAC with a .354% hitting percentage and led with 461 points. Suzanne Klosterman finished with 107 career blocks.

With the 27-7 record, Transy Volleyball has gone 55-13 in the last two seasons, continuing its dominance of the 2020's. 

Transylvania Volleyball and Transylvania Athletics thanks each senior for giving so much into the program.